Picton Brothers LEED Platinum Home

This beautiful and traditional home is the first LEED Platinum home in Connecticut. The three bedroom and two bathroom home was designed/built by Jim and Mark Picton, or Picton Brothers, LLC, and was profiled last month by the new folks at GreenBuildingAdvisor. It's the kind of home that prioritizes design first and expensive green technology second. Picton Brothers went with a super-insulated envelope — R40 in the walls and R60 in the roof — which definitely helped the home earn a HERS score of 30, Five Star + Energy Star rating, and of course, the LEED Platinum certification. Check out some of this home's other green elements:

Built to 1850 square feet;

Energy Star appliances;

Passive solar design and daylighting in all living spaces;

Active solar hot water and 2 kW solar PV;

Minimal and efficient routing of hot water pipes;

High-efficiency plumbing fixtures;

Wallboard with recycled gypsum;

Recycled cellulose insulation;

Long-lasting standing seam (recyclable) metal roof;

Reclaimed lumber cabinets and locally milled flooring;

Decking from locally salvaged cedar;

Salvaged fireslate counters and tiles;

Heat exchange ventilation for fresh air;

Drought resistent turf; and

Plentiful roof overhangs for shading and to shed rain.

The 2 kW solar PV system cost $9,500 and will provide roughly 30-50% of the home's energy needs, while the solar hot water system cost $7,000. Both systems work well with the standing seam roof, and although I haven't seen the installation, they probably didn't need to drill into the roof because the panels can be connected to the roof ridges. I bet we have a ton of East Coast readers that would love a home like this …

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5 Comments

Really nice home! Definitely looks like it will still be standing in 100 years!

But I thought to be true “passive solar” the design had to be more than just south facing windows with eaves? Doesn’t it need a heat sink to work properly? Or does it have this and I am just missing it?

It’s nice to see more designers taking a traditional approach to green rather than focusing on completely modern, it opens the market to more people. This is a home that can fit in anywhere, so I agree that a lot of people on the East Coast will love it.